Archangelsk and White Sea on Lockdown - Radiation spike after missile test fail

[Good2Golf]

I know back in the 50-60s the US was looking into nuclear propulsion for space travel but wasn't it banned by some international treaty.

...and 70s.  Tested out in ‘Jackass Flats, NV.’ :nod:

Nuclear propulsion using hydrogen as the working propellant wins the ‘Specific Impulse’ contest...almost 900 seconds. Even LH2 and LOX only yields up to 450 seconds.  Inter-solar travel would definitely benefit from nuclear propulsion.

Regards
G2G

 

[Jarnhamar]

I know back in the 50-60s the US was looking into nuclear propulsion for space travel but wasn't it banned by some international treaty.

The Outter Space Treaty banned weapons of mass destruction in space.

Project Orion explored the idea of propulsion by detonating a series of atomic bombs behind space craft.


There's quite a few nuclear-electric satallites and other nuclear reactors in space, though. It should still be doable.

 

[Kirkhill]

The Outter Space Treaty banned weapons of mass destruction in space.

Project Orion explored the idea of propulsion by detonating a series of atomic bombs behind space craft.


There's quite a few nuclear-electric satallites and other nuclear reactors in space, though. It should still be doable.

1978: Soviet nuclear satellite crashes in Canadian North

The Story

On Jan. 24, 1978, Norad tracks a fireball streaking across the skies over the Northwest Territories. Cosmos 954, a Soviet satellite, crashes near Great Slave Lake, scattering radioactive waste across a 124,000 square kilometre swath of the Northwest Territories, Alberta and Saskatchewan.

Cosmos 954, a maritime surveillance satellite, was launched on Sept. 18, 1977. Norad computers noticed decay in its orbit almost immediately. It was powered by a tiny nuclear reactor. Because of the radiation risk, the Soviets soon admitted the satellite was out of control, but gave few other details. The satellite was designed to eject its reactor core into a higher orbit in case of emergency, but this feature malfunctioned.

A joint Canada-U.S. cleanup effort, dubbed Operation Morning Light, ran until October 1978, but just 0.1 per cent of the satellite's power source was recovered. Canada asked the Soviet Union to pay the estimated $15-million tab; eventually it paid less than half.

The crash is credited with drawing international attention to the use of radioactive materials in space.

https://www.cbc.ca/archives/entry/1978-soviet-nuclear-satellite-crashes-in-canadian-north

A lot of man-made radio-active sources over head. 

Competing with Supernova and solar radiation and cosmic background as well as radon, radium, uranium and other neat stuff below. 

 

[Old Sweat]

couple of things about the crash and subsequent recovery. I was at FMCHQ in the training shop with one of my responsibilities to supervise CABC training. After the crash a party of staff from the unit jumped into the area to secure it until the specialized folks could arrive.

We also had a serial on Basic Para just entering J Stage, when all the Hercs went to join the search. We sent the students home (to the consternation of the OC of Parachute Training Wing). However, in a few weeks thanks to some stellar work by G4 Move and Training Systems and Air Command, we got a Herc long enough to bring the serial back and qualify them all.

And many years later, I found that the two civvies who first found and reported the wreckage became the film makers who did a documentary on Canada's part in the Second Anglo-Boer War. I am in the credits as a technical adviser. Interesting stories they had about the incident in the NWT indeed.

 

[Kirkhill]

couple of things about the crash and subsequent recovery. I was at FMCHQ in the training shop with one of my responsibilities to supervise CABC training. After the crash a party of staff from the unit jumped into the area to secure it until the specialized folks could arrive.

We also had a serial on Basic Para just entering J Stage, when all the Hercs went to join the search. We sent the students home (to the consternation of the OC of Parachute Training Wing). However, in a few weeks thanks to some stellar work by G4 Move and Training Systems and Air Command, we got a Herc long enough to bring the serial back and qualify them all.

And many years later, I found that the two civvies who first found and reported the wreckage became the film makers who did a documentary on Canada's part in the Second Anglo-Boer War. I am in the credits as a technical adviser. Interesting stories they had about the incident in the NWT indeed.

Old Sweat,  Wha dae ye no' ken?  :bowdown:

 

[tomahawk6]

The only aircraft crashes I saw was the Huey I was in crashed trying to lift off in swirling snow and as part of a rapi reaction unit when a USAF OV-10 went down during a live fire ex. In the Huey crash the pilot was killed but the rest of the aircrew and the squad being transported survived. Kind of like Karma. The man that caused the crash that banged up everyone got killed. The OV-10 crash was a nasty bloody affair. The aircrew died but the USAF would not allow the Army doctors to pronounce so they bodies remained in place about 8 hours until a security team and doc to be flown out. Damn shame really. Within an hour of the crash an Army doc was flown out and a Huey pilot landed an ran out to disconnect anything electrical to prevent a fire. We saw where the airaft had skidded and then a wing caught the plane and it flipped over. Bad luck but if the crew had been able to keep the wings level they might have survived. We gad been wearing overwhites but after crawling inside the cabin they were red.

 

[The Bread Guy]

A bit of info on what's been spotted according to what RUS authorities are sharing ...

Russia’s state meteorological service says it has identified four radioactive substances in samples taken from Severodvinsk, a city where radiation levels briefly spiked after a mysterious explosion at a site 18 miles (29km) away.

The explosion on 8 August killed at least five nuclear specialists from one of the premier research hubs run by the state nuclear energy corporation, Rosatom.

The substances were identified as “technogenic radionuclides” – strontium-91, barium-139, barium-140 and lanthanum-140. These are fast-decaying radioactive substances that would emit inert radioactive gases if exposed to the open air.

They were responsible for the “sharp, short-lived change in the radiation situation over Severodvinsk”, the meteorological service said. Roshydromet has been monitoring the situation but said no further radiation had been detected.
Advertisement

The findings appear to back up an official statement posted on the Severodvinsk city government website on 8 August. However, this disappeared after the Russian military denied there had been any emissions of radioactive material.

An earlier Roshydromet statement said radiation levels had jumped by between four to 16 times their usual level ...

More here.

 

[The Bread Guy]

Norway's nuclear monitor walking back initial "two explosions in the same place" assessment ...

Reports of a second blast from a deadly Russian rocket engine test may be wrong, and the signals could stem from unrelated mining activity, the Norwegian monitor that first presented the double explosion theory said.

Norsar, Norway's nuclear test-ban monitor, last week said an Aug. 8 explosion that killed five Russian scientists was followed by a second blast two hours later, and that this was the likely source of a spike in radiation.

The second explosion was detected by infrasonic air pressure sensors in the Norwegian town of Bardufoss, but further analysis, taking in additional data from Norway and Finland, pointed to a different explanation, Norsar said on its website*.

"The direction shows a small deviation of 1-2 degrees difference from the first event to the station in Bardufoss. Further analysis of the event with additional seismic data indicates that the event also may stem from mining activity in Finland," it added ...

* - English-language NORSAR statement here.